Waterford gets €27.6m for city centre rejuvenation

Waterford Distillery is included in the plans, with a visitors' centre earmarked for the area. Picture: Larry Cummins

Waterford is to receive €27.6m for the rejuvenation of its city centre and the repurposing of some long-vacant properties.

The money, announced through the Department of Housing’s Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF), will go towards 22 separate projects on opposite ends of the city, in the areas of the Viking Triangle and O’Connell Street.

More public spaces will also be created, with a total investment of about €48.5m.

Among the derelict city centre properties which have been earmarked for a new lease of life are the historic Presbytery building on Great George's Street and the Munster Express newspaper warehouse. The former is to be acquired from the diocese of Waterford and Lismore and converted into an innovation hub and creative arts studio.

Elsewhere, two new plaza areas at the entrance of the city over Rice Bridge and surrounding the 15th century Beach Tower will be created. Links will also be developed along O’Connell Street with the whiskey distillery on the quay to the city centre with a visitor's centre.

Once the city’s merchant quarter, O’Connell Street has been rebranded in recent years as the Cultural Quarter, on which the local authority expects to spend €36m.

“We need this badly,” said Granary Cafe owner, Peter Fowler, who has operated off the adjacent Hanover Street for the past 16 years. “This was once a prestigious part of the city but it’s fallen into disrepair – this [funding] is an appropriate way of making up for that.” 

The director of Garter Lane Arts Centre, Síle Penkert, who sits on the Quarter’s steering committee, said the money was vital as it is the “beating heart” for many residents and workers on the western side of the city.

In the wider Viking Triangle area, seven projects are included, with Waterford City and County Council expected to spend nearly €12m on these, including the creation of a new square and a “linear” park by Spring Garden Alley, which aims to allow a full view of the city’s ancient walls.

Waterford Fine Gael senator John Cummins, who is his party's housing spokesman in the Seanad, said it was a “further watershed day”, coming after November’s funding announcement for the North Quays project.

“Waterford City and County Council received every cent of funding they requested of Government and in reality the State investment will be far in excess of €27.6m, because a number of the projects contained in the plan are housing-related, which will be 100% funded via the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.” 

Waterford TD Mary Butler said it would allow the streets to be re-envisioned and provide a “live, work, play, environment to draw people back into” the city.

Discussions on how best to proceed with some buildings are ongoing, according to members of the Cultural Quarter steering committee and the council, with a final decision still to be made in several cases.